Crypto and FX: More Alike than We Think?

FX industry veteran and Profit & Loss 2012 Hall of Fame inductee, David Ogg, reflected in a recent video interview on how the rapidly evolving crypto markets resemble the FX markets of the past.

“It’s like FX in the 1980s,” said Ogg, who is currently the head of FX and trading venues at OTCXN, before adding, “The front-end technology is pretty primitive.”

By contrast, he said that OTCXN has developed “cutting edge” technology in terms of how it displays liquidity, offering visual tickers that enable traders to get a visual representation of what is happening in the market with just a glance.

Ogg also noted that the speed of trading continues to be slow in the crypto space, while there are significant challenges regarding settlement that OTCXN has sought to address.

“A lot of technology has been retail focused, so some of it’s slow, the whole process needs to be ramped up. FX trading took off with prime broking, it allowed the buy side to come in and trade heavy amounts,” said Ogg.

He added that by offering instantaneous settlement, OTXCN will enable the crypto space to accelerate in much the same way that the FX space did after the introduction of PB.